


Lysander Moon

by byanothername, whatinaname



Category: Code Name Verity - Elizabeth Wein, Rose Under Fire - Elizabeth Wein
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-17
Updated: 2016-02-17
Packaged: 2018-05-21 08:10:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6044410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/byanothername/pseuds/byanothername, https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatinaname/pseuds/whatinaname
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A proposal, set just before Rose Under Fire begins, in late July, 1944.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lysander Moon

Jamie walked Maddie out into the cool, crisp evening, straight from a wonderful evening of mirth with their mates over a meagre supper at the pilot’s mess hall at that most secret of airfields. It was their latest of very few meetings they could afford to arrange between them; it only worked every two months or so. The sky was clear, and the squadron’s namesake was full and shining bright for them. They stopped a good distance away from where everyone else might pass and gazed up at it for a moment, together, in awe of its soft beauty. They hadn’t ever met on the night of a full moon. Jamie would usually be flying. They instinctively started wandering towards the direction of The Cottage, the place they all used to frequent the year before.

Maddie suddenly shivered, the coolness of the air seeping into her skin as they wandered near their old haunt. She stepped closer to Jamie, laying her head on his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her to comfort her. Neither of them mentioned what was tearing at their hearts in the moonlight: loss, and the unquenchable sadness of missing the third person of their happy trio.

Even joy was tinged with desperation when you knew that you were young, and in love, and you had only a few more hours together, and today might be the last time you ever _were_ together. People died every day. People just _disappeared_ every day, and some of them were your friends, and the next one could be you. There were no guarantees in wartime, no reassurance that you would even _ever know_ what really happened.

Jamie broke into her thoughts. “Maddie-love,” he ventured, “I’ve just recently had word from above…” She turned her head slightly to meet his eyes. “They’re moving the Moon Squadron to France in a few weeks.”

“Oh, no!” Maddie interjected, an instant reaction to another loss of support, combined with a very real dread for his safety; the invasion was only a month and a half old – and she couldn’t bear the thought of it – not right now.

“It’s not so different from what we are doing now. Except now we won’t have to cross the channel, so it’ll be safer in a way,” he reassured her. “This bloomin’ war has _got_ to be almost over. We’re really handing it to Jerry now.” He paused a moment, and Maddie turned her head away. “Maddie, darling, I have got some leave right before we go – three days off right up until…” here he gulped, “…August 12th.”

Maddie broke away from him with a look of horror. “They can’t!” she wailed. “Not that day!”

“It’s the day after that day,” he replied quickly. “But if I remember your schedule correctly, you’ve got a couple days off at the same time. Maddie-lass, let’s make it a happy day – now and forever. I love you more than anything else in this world. Would you marry me, Toeless Pobble that I am? Would you marry me on her birthday?” He held out a little ring, a rose-gold band with a square-cut ruby flanked by tiny pearls arranged in triangles.

Maddie gasped. “You don’t mean it,” she breathed, staring at the little French ruby. She knew it had been Julie’s, and Esme’s before her. It was a formal invitation to become part of a very privileged family – a family that she had been practically adopted into because of her unlikely friendship with the youngest of the six children.

“But I am just Maddie Brodatt, the orphaned daughter of an immigrant tradesman. You are…” she faltered, not being able to name the gulf between their circumstances. “You can’t mean it!” she spoke with feeling.

“Oi, ya dafty lassie!” Jamie exclaimed, suddenly sounding very Scottish. “What would I do without ya? I’d be flyin’ alone, I would. We NEED each other. Who cares about where we come from? It’s where we’re goin’ tha’ matters. And I don’t want to go anywhere without ya!”

When Jamie finished, Maddie immediately, ungracefully began blubbing instead of answering him, because she felt so desperate, and so happy, and so... so unspeakably _sad_. Jamie put the ring back in his pocket and pulled her close to his side as they walked on again, no sounds but their footsteps and Maddie's sobbing, and they kept walking until they reached the stand of trees not far from the cottage.

Jamie leant back against one of the trees and stroked Maddie's hair, staring off into the distance, lost in his own thoughts. For several minutes they just stood there, Maddie's face hidden in his shoulder, and slowly her snivelling quieted, and finally with a shaking sigh she lifted her head to look at him.

Immediately she had his full attention, and he leaned his forehead into hers, whispering, “Maddie lass, please say yes. I can't fly away from you tonight without hope, something to hang on to. We need each other. You know that.” His breath was soft on her face and she nodded. “Whenever we're apart, I can't think of anything but you.” He smiled fondly at the glint of undried tears still tracking down her cheeks. He kissed them away softly. “Say yes, Maddie, please, _please_ say yes.”

She swallowed and her answer came in something of a squeak. “Yes, Jamie.”

He sighed as if a great burden had just been rolled off his shoulders and leant his head back against the tree trunk and smiled at the sky.

“Kiss me, Jamie,” she whispered, her voice catching in another squeak.

“Oh, ma cherie,” he whispered back, needing no second invitation. He framed her teartracked face with his hands, then wrapped his arms around her tightly and began gently kissing her, his lips brushing softly down her neck until her knees buckled, and in a moment they were on the dewy grass, Jamie kissing her as if he would never have another chance. Maddie thought her heart might just explode, he was so overwhelmingly _wonderful_ , and she lay there somewhat stiffly trying to decide how to react to his passionate outburst. When he finally paused to catch his breath, he seemed to read her thoughts, and he said with a hint of mischief, “Relax, Maddie-lass, I'm just making this up as I go along. Pretend we're dancing and just follow my lead.”

Maddie giggled nervously. Always pretending, she thought with a smile. Her heart overflowed with love for this crazy boy as they lay face to face, ghostly in the moonlight, and she almost timidly reached out her hands to him, scooting a little closer so she could kiss him back.

For a long time they lay there, as close to each other as it was possible to be in the open night air, in a place where anyone might chance to pass by and see them, kissing and cuddling and whispering secrets with him playfully teasing and her blushing, until the time drew near they knew they were going to have to part.

Not wanting to waste a single one of these precious moonlit moments remaining to them, Jamie sat up against the trunk of the tree and Maddie nestled into him, savouring the warmth of his strong arms. He sighed deeply, but it was contentment, not sorrow, and with one hand he picked bits of grass and tiny twigs from her tangled curls. It seemed to Maddie that she would never be able to tear herself out of that warm, quiet haven of his arm, where there were no bombs, no war, nothing but love and safety and hope.

And when they did finally say goodbye, Jamie pulled her toward him one last time, and she felt something cold slipping onto her finger in the dark. It was Julie's ring. He stepped back a little and she held her hand close to her chest, as if the ring would disappear if she wasn’t careful.

“I will never, ever take it off,” she promised, almost fiercely. Jamie brushed her cheek with the back of his fingers, raised her chin to meet his gaze, and leaned in and kissed her gently one last time – and then he walked away into the night.


End file.
